Lexington Barbecue Festival

 http://www.barbecuefestival.com/

Shirley just talked with Stephanie Saintsing Naset, Executive Director of the Lexington Barbecue Festival, and got her approval to promote our October 27, 2013, tournament as an Official Event of the Lexington Barbecue Festival.  Great news!  Come for the festival on Saturday and stay over for the tournament on Sunday!

Sunday- Winston-Salem

Nice crowd at Miller Park for our usual Sunday afternoon play.  Hot, but not unbearably so.  Plan to join us again next Sunday at 1:00.

Saturday- Hickory

Augustin and Susanne had us over to play in Hickory on Saturday.  They have just finished adding a fourth court in the woods behind their home.  It' really looks great!  They were able to incorporate several trees as part of the court boundaries as opposed to just removing them.  The entire area is shaded so it promises to be a great place to play on hot Carolina afternoons.  Plus, the retro-look lighting around the perimeter allows play on into the evenings.

Thursday-- Lexington

Shirley and I spent a couple of hours on Thursday afternoon teaching some kids how to play.  We used a baseball infield located at the Robbins Recreation Center on Hargrave Street in Lexington.  The kids seemed to have a lot of fun and we promised them we'd return this Thursday for a follow-up.

From Carol (and Tom) Cearley

...we'll be in France again Sunday.  Bought two sets of balls last weekend to play while at wedding festivities this past weekend.  Worst terrain we have ever played on, full of rocks.  Played with a nine year old boy named Brice who could hold his own and really could read the lay of the land!  Just got interested this year and taught himself.  I was impressed!!!,

Hope all is well there with you all.  We are working every minute, hit the ground running and have not stopped, except to attend a wedding last weekend.  Now we are back to the salt mines!

Carol

45 years!!!

Shirley and I celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary doing one of the things we love most-- playing petanque with our friends at Miller Park in Winston-Salem.

(We also had a great meal afterwards at the Bonefish Grill!)

http://bonefishgrill.com/

Wilmington, NC

Kirk had a conference in Wilmington, NC, last week and the Edwards family had one last hoorah before Parker started school. Kirk found a potential place to play some petanque, and, while they were in town, they stopped by to check it out. Courts & Sports Bar & Grill had two good courts-- one that was about 70’ long (could be divided into two) and another court that was about 35’.

Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating and the courts were shallow swimming pools. The staff offered to squeegee one out, but, since it was still raining, it probably would have been a futile effort. 

In addition to petanque, Courts & Sports had about 8 volleyball courts, and offered dodgeball, cornhole, sand soccer and, of course, bocce. Courts & Sports also had a very nice restaurant/bar with the typical bar menu, but not the typical bar food.  “The fish and house-cut chips were some of the best I’ve had in quite a while, and Bo’s club sandwich was huge with a great spicy Cuban sauce,” said Kirk. The wait staff was very friendly and, of course, Kirk struck up a conversation about playing petanque.

 The next thing they knew Rob Migliosi, Program Director, came over to say hello and to find out more about petanque and Carolina Petanque. “Rob was super nice and very interested in petanque and the differences to bocce; he is a bocce player from way back and even has a couple courts at his house and plays regularly.” The Edwards family did a show-and-tell with the boules and other petanque equipment and Rob gave Kirk a few business cards so we could keep in touch. “Rob said if the club ever wanted to organize something down in the Wilmington, NC, area he would like to meet some other players and Courts and Sports would like to host the gathering,” Kirk said. If you are ever in the area stop by, say hello, and play a few games.

http://www.courts-sports.com/

Kirk:  Sorry for the poor photo; after dark, raining, into the lights. Go online for better pictures of the facilities and activities.

Bob in Michigan

From Facebook:

Jane, Bob, and Gilbert were winners in Sunday play in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Post Texas

While the Edwards family was off doing their Carowinds thing, several of us were playing at Miller Park.  We had missed a few weeks of Carolina play while visiting the grandkids in Texas, so we were happy to be back.  Even better, people actually seemed to genuinely appreciate the fact that we were back!  It's nice to be missed.

Edwards family on the move

Kirk, Bo, and Parker traveled a bit this weekend, meeting Marc and Augustin in Hildebran, NC, at a new park in the town. “The park was just gorgeous with a huge pavilion and restrooms next to the court” said Kirk. 

They played for a few hours until hunger and heat drove them to go to a local pizza shop for some sustenance and cold beverages.  http://www.hildebrannc.com/index.asp?SEC=3B5E4150-65A1-4A85-B9BA-2BDA671B05F0&Type=B_BASIC  It was good timing, because while they were there a thunderstorm came through the area and kept them from playing for an hour or so.  After the rain tapered off, they returned to finish the competition between Hickory and Spruce Pine. Ultimately, Hickory prevailed with excellent pointing and shooting by the Hickory team.

The following day the Edwards family met up with Kaye (Kirk’s Mom), and they traveled to Charlotte, NC, to go to Carowinds amusement park.  There they met Cruz, Kristi, and family for some fun.

The Edwards family had to leave a little earlier for the drive back and in order to stop by Kaye’s house. They decided to stop and have dinner at Bravo restaurant in Charlotte and discovered a petanque court. “After dinner, of course we had to throw some boules around and teach some of the staff and spectators the game of petanque” said Kirk. The restaurant was very open to the club using the court anytime. http://www.bravoitalian.com/index.html

Check it out if you're in the area.

Montreal

Ernesto Santos (La Boule New Yorkaise), Youseff Hassoune (La Boule New Yorkaise), and Khalid Mesbah (CarolinaPetanque)

Congratulations to Khalid Mesbah (Carolina Petanque), Ernesto Santos (La Boule NY), and Joseph Hassoune (La Boule NY) for finishing in the quarter finals at the La Marseillaise in Montreal Canada!

Familiar faces at the French Legation

Cindy, Travis, Robert, Anthony, and Amadeus

CarolinaPetanque member Walt Elder-- now of Austin, Texas!

Michael, Jacques, and Rudy

Anthony to shoot

Walt

Custom made boules case by Thierry Amisse

Another view of Thierry's artwork

And one more view

Thierry (semi-dressed in the French fashion)

Now Michael takes a look

Then they call the umpire (both boules were touching)

 We saw familiar faces from back home in North Carolina and from Amelia Island on Sunday.  The North Carolina connection was CarolinaPetanque member, Walt Elder.  He and his wife, Estefii, now reside in Austin, so we made sure to make contact.  Walt came out to play, but Estefi was in Spain visiting family.  Great to see Walt though!

He's doing great in Austin and working in a management position with Schlotzsky's Deli.  He has 38 store locations under his guidance and just finished with the opening of a new location in San Antonio.

The Amelia Island connection was to the Alejandro family, formerly of Jerome, Arizona,-- now Texas residents!  We met Anthony and Cindy at the Petanque America Open several years ago.  We have maintained communications through Facebook and were glad to be able to say hello to them here in Austin.  We encouraged them to play with some of our Texas petanque friends while in Texas and hone their games for the 2013 edition of the Petanque America Open.  We hope to see them there.